Hunters to blame for decline in numbers

As hunting seasons open across the nation this fall, three things will be certain.

1: There will be fewer of us than last year.
2. There will be more of us than next year.
3. Hunters who want to know the reason for those facts can look in any mirror.

Recent surveys by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show the slow, steady decline of hunting participation that began in the 1970s continues today. A sport that numbered more than 20 million in the 1970s is now down to 12.5 million, and falling. We lost a half-million members in the past five years alone. And while programs have boosted participation in some states, you don't need a calculator to realize where this fraternity is headed if we continue bleeding 100,000 members a year.

A succession of reports has provided hunters with convenient culprits for our demise, things such as "lack of access" to public hunting lands, cost of hunting, less game, single-parent households, restrictive rules and regulations, etc., etc. and etc.

But over the years, some doubts began building in the back of my mind. While hunting was declining, other leisure time activities that required hunting-size investments of time, money and travel were growing. In my own community, people who had stopped hunting were buying season tickets to pro and college sports seasons, spending entire weekends tailgating, traveling to distant theme parks and roaming the country as soccer, gymnastics and baseball parents.

So I began wondering if the surveys were asking the right questions. Instead of "What caused you to stop hunting?" perhaps a survey should ask, "Why have you chosen to do something else other than hunt?"

As a member of the guilty party, I hated to recognize that fact, but a conversation at a duck camp last year finally helped me understand. Two friends who had dedicated much of their lives to preserving the waterfowling tradition were upset because their state would not allow their children to become hunter-education qualified completely online.

"You have to attend in person, " they complained, "and that takes an entire weekend."

I responded, "So, isn't that how it's always been? Isn't that part of the traditional commitment for serious, ethical hunters?"

They looked at me like I'd just parachuted from the moon. Their kids couldn't go a full weekend because of "other commitments." The soccer (or swimming, gymnastics, track, you name it) coach would bench them for missing practice or a game. They would become a pariah at school.

The debate came down to this: My friends felt "government" was forcing their kids out of hunting. I felt they were choosing to take their kids out of hunting, or at least letting them opt out.

Where is it written that hunter ed should take second place to soccer practice? Why can't the soccer coach be advised not to schedule practice or a game on that weekend?

It really does come down to a choice -- just as it comes down to a choice between investing in those season tickets, the trip to DisneyWorld, the ski excursion to Vail, the Caribbean cruise -- or staying in the hunting club.

For decades now, America's hunters have been choosing other activities, and taking the future generation of hunters with them.

They aren't alone. Outdoor sports in general -- from fishing to backpacking -- are suffering similar declines. It's all spelled out in Richard Louv's book, "Last Child in the Woods -- Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder, " which explains why most American children today have little contact with the outdoors.

"I completely agree with you -- parents simply have been making choices to put their children's time into other activities, not to put them in the outdoors, " Louv said.

While it's easy for parents to blame the glut of competition from video games to the demands of school extracurricular activities, Louv says the bottom-line is parents' unwillingness or inability to place a priority on outdoor experiences.

Many justify their choices by saying "it's what kids do today, " but Louv counters that a growing body of research shows outdoors sports and nature experiences actually build stronger minds as well as bodies.

Understanding this surrender attitude on the part of hunting parents is especially troubling. Unlike many parents who spent their leisure time as children on playgrounds or at shopping malls, we were taken into the forests, swamps and marshes. We had the experience and the knowledge to hand that tradition down. Yet most of us have chosen not to.

If we don't start making other choices, we may be one of the last hunting generations.

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Bob Marshall can be reached at rmarshall@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3539.